Also, I agree with @humanrights . Grinnell the town has a lot to offer and city folk often don’t understand that. It could be a really awesome opportunity to learn about life in an American social environment very dissimilar to your own.
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Also, I think the major difference between SLACs are the personalities of the student bodies. If you think that “weird” personality in your peers isn’t for you, maybe neither is Grinnell. I also have a pretty good handle on those personalities if you’d like me to compare different schools.
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"and THE IOWA CAUCUS which you are guaranteed to experience in your four years here. "
Haha, we will see about whether that will remain a notable thing.
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@CheddarcheeseMN lmao true! I’m not saying it should be such a big deal, but I’m super glad I lived through one and got to experience it. 
Hey, I am considering Grinnell, Williams, and Amherst. Do you know anything about comparing the three? It would help me out a lot all love
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@angeliquedb All three are elite liberal arts schools. Each has its own feel, so it partly depends on where you want to be located (northeast v. midwest). One thing to consider is that Williams and Amherst only offer need-based aid, while Grinnell also offers merit aid. All try to meet 100% of demonstrated need. Also, I think Grinnell promises a minimum of $10k in scholarships per year if accepted through Early Decision.
I went to grinnell. I would not recommend going there. The students are not just weird - they are crazy weird. Total wacko weirdo. If you aren’t gay or a minority or totally weird in some way, they will hate on you. You can get a good education there - but there are also many students there who aren’t especially bright and you can get a great education at a lot of schools.
The alumni network sucks because most graduates do non traditional hippy, social justice type jobs. And it is in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Extremely isolating. Trust me - go someplace else - unless you are a super weirdo (then you’ll love it there). You can get a great education at a flagship state school in any big state and you will be around people who aren’t total clowns.
Do you still plan to study economics? For this interest, Williams and Amherst offer two of the nation’s strongest programs:
https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html
Without any slight intended toward the generally excellent Grinnell, if you get into a top-10 LAC for your intended major, go.
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yiiikes… this is a very unrealistic take, and if not unrealistic, then a very nontraditional experience. my apologies your experience was bad, and I’m not attempting to invalidate your experience at all, but considering how quickly you are to judge a student body and everyone in it and automatically write them off as “clowns” very much makes me think grinnell was not your place from the get-go.
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I’m not following what you mean by ‘unrealistic’ or ‘non traditional’ I spent 4 years at Grinnell and left with a degree. I would not recommend going there. It truly is in the middle of nowhere and feels like Siberia. And the students are weird - which is what the original poster was talking about. Am I sorry I went to Grinnell? Well they gave me a bucket full of money to go there and I got into an excellent graduate school. For that I’m thankful. I would not have gone there but for the huge financial aid package they offered.
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Wow is it really that odd a place? Is it the entire student body or specific to certain majors? I’m assuming humanities students are somewhat different from science students? Just curious…what did you major in? And by good graduate school, are we talking top ten in the field? I’m only asking because arguably that might make it worth it for some students to deal with the weirdness as long as their long term goals are met.
I got into the #3 ranked graduate school in my field. Grinnell places extremely well with graduate schools. You need good grades of course. But the top 5 schools are filled with students who did undergrad at Harvard, Yale, etc. you might be the only student applying to the school from Grinnell. They’d rather take you than take a 14th student from Harvard when they already have 13 Harvard grads going. And Grinnell has an A++ reputation with grad schools. They aren’t going to look at you any differently than the grads from Harvard and Yale.
And I thought I was just as prepared (maybe better prepared) than the Harvard and Yale grads who were my classmates in grad school. Like I said - I got an excellent education at Grinnell.
I may be being too harsh about the weirdness. South campus is really weird. North and East campus are more sporty. You will be able to find friends who don’t have blue hair and smoke mushrooms all day. I just think the overall vibe of the school has moved way too far to the weird side of the spectrum. They need to pull it back a bit.
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Just to add my thoughts about Grinnell…I graduated about 25 years ago so maybe a little out of date. The academics were fantastic and I was able to get into the top ranked graduate program in my field and once there I also excelled and was one of the best students. Grinnell offered an education that was hard to beat.
The students were not weird, in fact, they were some of the most down to earth and open minded people I have ever met. The students were really genuine and nice people.
The down side to Grinnell is the location. The first two years are good but by senior year it felt claustrophobic and I could not wait to leave. Overall though, it was an experience I would never change and the education I received there has helped me throughout my life.
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I will be the first to say that I don’t know this school well, except from a few students who have attended in the last decade… But I think that a lot of times, smaller remote schools with a distinct vibe, find that vibe getting amplified as kids looking for that vibe go there in increasing numbers. And when schools actively work to “dilute” it, students and alums may grumble. So I don’t doubt either the person who found it pretty middle of the road 25 years ago or the current student who doesn’t “fit” so well today.
What I believe OP may be saying is “I am not a person who really fit in with this vibe and while I got a great education, this is not a place I would recommend to someone like me.” That’s totally fine. Fwiw, I said the same of my undergrad alma mater - and not even a small LAC. Perfect academically but definitely the wrong place socially. And I was a person who cared about my social life, so it really had an impact on the whole experience - in spite of the academic Cinderella fit.
Grinnell is undeniably an excellent school. Maybe not everyone’s cup of tea.
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Thanks! Well at least the isolation and weirdness of the student body has a positive trade-off in terms of quality of education and grad school prospects. Might keep off some students but attract others.
When you say weird, what exactly do you mean? I ask bc son applied there. He does not have blue hair nor does he do mushrooms. He does play Dungeons and Dragons, which some may say is weird.
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We visited last year just before Covid, and I don’t think we saw one person with blue hair. Our tour guide was awesome and explained her self-designed major in depth, as we asked many questions. A friend of hers took the year off to work on Mayor Pete’s campaign, and her plan was to eventually work to support the democratic nominee with the remainder of her time if Pete was not that person. We talked to another student who was planning a semester in Washington, DC, and someone else who was paid by the college for volunteering in the community. We saw lots of diversity and observed mixed groups of students eating in the cafeteria, but no one I would deem “weird.” In fact, D did not really expect to like the school, but she came away impressed and plans to apply next year.
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We also visited Grinnell not so long ago, in the summer of 2019. We loved it, and it was very high on my daughter’s list, although she ended up choosing a different college. Because it was the summer, we didn’t see many students, but those we did meet were very nice and not weird (whatever that means). A senior greeted us while we were waiting for our tour, talked to my daughter about theater activities at Grinned and mentioned that he was accepted to law school. I have a friend, whose son is a senior at Grinnell, and he’s had a great experience there. He is straight and doesn’t have blue hair. Very intellectual and yes, quirky students, according to him.
And by the way, my daughter loves playing Dungeons and Dragons, too, and doesn’t drink or smoke anything (although she does have a colored streak in her hair).
I just wanted to share our impressions. I think Grinnell does have its share of alternative kids, but it’s true of many LACs and is not necessarily a bad thing (although it might not be for everyone).
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I think some of you may be missing my point. I really think Grinnell has an extremely unique student body that - as one poster put it - is not everyone’s cup of tea. If I had a son or daughter or brother or sister who was looking at Grinnell, I would want them to do some real soul searching to make sure it truly was a good fit. That’s true at every school but given the super small and quirky student body and isolated location, it is especially true at Grinnell. Other larger schools have a little bit of everything. I don’t think that’s the case at Grinnell.
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I transferred to Grinnell from Pitzer College. Grinnell is more conservative than Pitzer but not by much. The student body is much more diverse now than it used to be. A lot of the social life centers around dorm parties and there are some hook ups but not alot of dating if you know what I mean. I went there because I wanted to go to school at a rural campus where you could focus on schoolwork and not be distracted.
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